The last 2+ weeks
Man, how do I even catch up after 2.5 weeks? Yikes. TBH, I don't even remember what I was doing two weeks ago.
I do remember Palm Sunday (Apr 14), however: For those of you who aren't church-goers or who have different types of services, Palm Sunday in a Catholic church has a super-long Gospel reading, covering events from the entire Holy Week, from Palm Sunday right up through the death and burial of Jesus (but not the Resurrection). It's usually read by three people - the priest gets Jesus' spoken lines, and two others take the rest of the narrative. There's usually a few lines for the congregation to say, as well, printed in bold in the missal. I clocked it on Sunday - the Gospel alone took fifteen minutes. Now, to be fair, the priest usually gives a really short homily afterwards, in compensation. But still - it does make the service longer than usual, overall.
Anyway, just as they were getting started with the Gospel, I saw a man across the aisle and a few rows up suddenly get up (making a middle-aged woman on the aisle get up to let him out) and hurriedly make his way to the back of the church, pausing only to turn back and grab his cell phone. A moment later, two ushers came up, and leaned over into the pew (around the woman on the aisle) to talk to someone. Clearly there was some sort of medical issue going on, although it didn't seem to involve a) something super-urgent like a heart attack or b) someone barfing (there was a year, back in PA, where someone barfed during the Palm Sunday reading, but I was doing the youth activity downstairs and thankfully missed it). Whoever they were talking to seemed to be conscious, at least, or at least sorta conscious. Within five minutes, the EMTs arrived (no siren), quietly came down the aisle, and also leaned over to talk to the patient, who turned out to be an older woman (not the one on the end of the pew - she eventually moved to sit one row back to stay out of the way while there was all this coming and going) or, at least, the person I assume was the woman's husband, although I couldn't see either of them at this point, from my angle. EMTs went back to the ambulance and returned with their stretcher, at which point one of them, the lady EMT, eased into the pew and, along with the husband on the other side, got the woman to her feet and very, very carefully and slowly, got her to inch out to the stretcher - clearly they were worried about her falling/collapsing/fainting. They eased her onto the stretcher, then carted her out.
Meanwhile, the Gospel readers carried on as if nothing was happening, which, honestly, was probably the only thing they really COULD do. They could probably see the situation was well in hand, and nobody needed Last Rites on the spot or anything. So, I don't criticize them at all for the whole The Show Must Go On approach (although I did have to poke Will periodically to pay attention to the points where the congregation had lines), but it was also faintly ridiculous, too. Especially as the priest got up to say his 90-second homily *just* as they were getting the woman on the stretcher. Now, initially, not everyone in church knew there was something going on - certainly, people sitting further up front wouldn't have known there was something going on behind them, at first. But by the time the stretcher arrived, of course *everybody* knew that something was up, despite everyone working super-quietly. Which meant I'm pretty sure absolutely nobody was listening to Fr M's sermon, since every single head was turned to face the stretcher. He's kind of a boring speaker anyway, but he could have been giving the greatest homily since time began, and we would have missed it. :P
I don't know if Father M gave an update on the parishioner during Easter services, since we were away, but hopefully she's ok.
Oh, and the previous day, I'd set down my glasses while trying on a sweatshirt in a store, then forgot them ... and someone stole them. Seriously, who steals prescription eyeglasses? And it was right by the register - so easy to just hand them to someone and say, "I found this." Sigh. Thankfully, I still have older pairs, but it's probably time I make an appointment and get this pair replaced, along with my prescription sunglasses, which were lost shortly before Christmas - and again, who steals prescription sunglasses?? *annoyed*
As for the rest of that week: I worked in the library all day on Monday, getting accounts set up for all 500+ kids for the upcoming annual Scholastic summer reading challenge. Tues was usual library in the morning, then MiniPlu had an appointment with an allergist after school. I've been meaning for ages to try to see if there was ANYTHING we could do for her seasonal allergies. The doctor we got was *great* - he really takes a holistic approach, using both traditional treatments and other stuff on the side people might not consider. The problem was, he had a lOT of different ideas and approaches he was suggesting and he talked a million words a minute. We did get informative handouts, but they lack certain details that I really need to call back and ask about, before we try implementing. Like, for instance, as part of dealing with not only the seasonal allergies, but the skin and pineapple sensitivities, he's recommending a) a probiotic and b) eating a mostly low-carb and low-dairy (ie limiting those to one meal per day) diet, but neither MiniPlu nor I remember *why*. Anyway, because we were leaving for vacation just three days after seeing the doctor, we've only done a few small items on the list, but we really need to kick into full gear soon, see how well it works. MiniPlu is, like me, a carb fiend, and she's really downhearted at the idea of finding other things to eat. And it means, for me, thinking back to when I was on SCD, and wondering if I'm going to be left cooking double, once for the low-carb people, and once for everyone else, as I often had to do when the SCD foods were not going to be to anyone else's tastes. Because catering to the seven distinct dietary needs/preferences wasn't hard enough as it was. :P
After the allergist, MiniPlu had to go straight to tutoring so, yeah, full day. Oh, and there was a scuffle over the upcoming Leo conference. I can't remember if I mentioned this before or not - MiniPlu and two friends are attending the annual North American Leo leadership conference, which this year is being held near Phoenix, AZ, in mid-late July. It's a four-day conference, held in the same hotel where the kids are being put up, so once they arrive, they don't have to GO anywhere, although there will be a few conference-wide field trips, one for a service activity and one fun trip to local water slides. Otherwise, the kids will be sequestered in the hotel, for conference-related lectures and activities, pretty much every waking minute. The other two moms and I sat down and discussed whether we were comfortable sending the girls unaccompanied, because it turned out neither the Leo advisors, nor anyone from the local Lion's Int'l club was going to this conference, and in the end, we decided we were fine. It's a direct flight, MiniPlu has tons of travel experience, her BFF has some experience traveling with a peer and without an adult, and between them, they'll be fine with directing the third girl, who has more limited travel experience. We communicated with the conference director, who answered various questions for us, and, yeah, we went ahead, bought their airplane tix, and signed them up. The local Lions chapter was so excited, they donated money to each girl's trip costs, totaling about 40% of the conference fees, which was really nice of them, and only asked in return that, after the conference, the girls come give a presentation on what they learned.
But then, that Tues (Apr 16) the Leo advisor told the girls that the principal had only just discovered that they were traveling unaccompanied. The Leo teacher had thought that, since it was summer it wouldn't be considered an official school trip, so that as long as we were ok with it, then it was fine. But the principal found out and told the superintendent, and they were both Very Frowny about it, and were Strongly Encouraging us (the families) to pull the kids out, fretful of our letting them loose, unaccompanied, in the wilds of Arizona. MiniPlu came home to warn us that the Leo teacher (Mrs. R) would be calling each of us that night to Strongly Encourage us to quit. So, I got on the text group the three moms have and we all verified that we were fine with the kids going.
Thankfully, I was the first person Mrs. R called that night, around 8p. C's mom is great but sometimes a little scattered, and S's mom is the one who worried a little bit more in the first place, although not too much. Anyway, I was able to calmly and confidently explain that the moms had all met to discuss things *before* we signed them up, we contacted the conference director with additional questions we'd had, that the kids would be picked up *by* the conference and taken to the hotel, that the conference was *in* that hotel so they wouldn't be going anywhere, except on the rare occasions there's a whole-group outing, first for a service project and then to the water slides, and that we'd been assured that those kids who didn't already have chaperones would be assigned one among the conference leaders, that the conference had TONS of structure so there wouldn't be any point that the girls would be at loose ends, and that MiniPlu and C were well traveled, knew how to navigate airports, and that C had even flown sans adults with a peer (I think her cousin) to meet up with family in another state, and that between the three of them, they would be FINE for the small amount of time they were on their own. Mrs. R was clearly relieved to hear about the amount of research we'd put into the whole escapade, and, from what I gathered from the mom text group afterwards, the other moms said pretty much the same thing. We might be asked to come to school and sign release forms, holding the school not-responsible, since nobody from the school is going, but we're okay with that.
But, oy.
Wed I was subbing at the middle school, then took MiniPlu to get the mani-pedi Karen had promised her back on Valentine's Day, but we hadn't had time for until then, and I squeezed in a grocery run to stock up Dad on food, while MiniPlu was at her appointment. R&K left on Wed to drive down to Florida, since Rob refuses to fly these days.
Thurs was library in the morning and laundry and final packing after. I met with my sports medicine guy about my knee (tendonitis). In the evening I left a little early for TKD, taking the dog with me and dropping her off at the dog-sitter's on my way to class, as our dog-sitter is only about 10-15min away from TKD.
Friday we left for Disney! This took longer than intended, alas - due to severe weather in FL right around the time we were due to arrive, the FAA closed both Orlando and Tampa's airports. We were literally 3 minutes from closing the plane door and leaving when the first delay (1 hour) was called; for that, we stayed put, just sitting on the plane (I dozed). But then we were told to deplane and take everything with us and we were given a new gate. It was the same plane, but apparently someone else needed *that* gate. Anyway, getting off for the second hour meant at least we could walk around, and get some food for the evening, seeing as we weren't due in until 8:30p or something at that point. Thankfully, we DID manage to leave at the two-hour mark (we were kind of nervous because the severe weather was, by then, encroaching on NJ, and if we hadn't left soon, we were going to be caught AGAIN), and they reloaded the plane quickly so we could be on our way. Of course, due to the delay, we didn't bother trying to go to the parks upon our arrival - we just unpacked and went to bed.
Thankfully, the week itself was good. The weather was a bit cool the first two days, but then it warmed up, and it didn't rain once. Things that were irritating: Two was a PITA every. single. morning. when I was trying to get sunscreen on him, declaring - repeatedly - that he didn't need it as an Asian person, and that he was going to refuse to wear it, that he couldn't possibly get skin cancer, then complaining, after I had forcibly put it on him, that I didn't rub it in enough - without actually doing anything about it, himself. I mean, MiniPlu hates sunscreen, too, but put it on without complaint because she knew it was important. (I also bought her one of those newer sunscreens that has a more lightweight feel.) Also irritating: dealing with Harvey's scooter. Granted, him going around on a scooter sometimes meant we got to bypass the worst of lines, depending on how a ride, and the queue spaces, were organized. But maneuvering through the parks was a nightmare. It was crowded, and he had trouble negotiating the crowds, so we constantly had to stop walking and wait for him to catch up. And then other times, when it was less crowded, he'd scoot along ahead of our group, and either a) leave *us* behind, or b) go the wrong way. I have never met anyone with less sense of direction, seriously. Even when we were right with him, he'd initially go the wrong way out of a ride space or whatever, or he'd not be paying attention to "stop and wait here" lines on the ground, or he'd misunderstand how he was supposed to park the scooter in order to board a ride or ... I don't even know. His hearing is fine. His mentality is fine. But his sense of direction is nonexistent. And he's *been* to the parks multiple times, so you'd think he would remember at least a little of the general layout, but he couldn't be trusted to find his way out of a paper bag, seriously. Sweet guy, but the four of us were all a bit relieved when we could do things on our own here and there, and NOT worry about dealing with Harvey every minute. And, of course, there was also dealing with Karen, who wanted to stop and photograph everything, or who fussed to make sure everyone was getting what they liked, even in cases where it wasn't necessary, because she's a people pleaser.
Rob, of course, hid out in the hotel room almost the entire time. Even in Nov he ventured out a little more than this trip. We saw him ... twice. He came to the parks ONE evening, 11p-1:30a (Magic Kingdom was open 'til midnight every night, but occasionally had their Extra Magic hours for Disney hotel guests, where they'd be open until 2am), Wed evening, and came to breakfast with Stitch on the last morning, Fri. This is his favorite meal, because of Stitch, but he refused to come to the one scheduled on the first day, nor would he come to his favorite dinner, which was on Easter Sunday. I had a hard time dealing with him when he *was* there, because, for instance, the night he came to the parks, he was all gung ho to find activities everyone could do together (because he and Harvey either don't like or don't fit on certain rides) and by then I was completely bored with all the things he wanted to do, because I'd DONE them, and all I could think of was, "If you want to do things together, then where were you EVERY OTHER NIGHT?" I mean, if he didn't want to deal with crowds and heat, that's fine. But he could have come out to join us after 10p absolutely any night, and he wouldn't. And then when he was amazed that, at the Stitch breakfast, they not only had the standard Mickey-shaped waffles, but also Stitch-imprinted ones, I was like, "Yep, we've seen that already." (In fact, we saw that on the Nov trip, too - which he was at. How did he not remember that when he saw it?) I get that he came along for a change of scenery, so he could see his wife at bedtime, and so he was forcibly removed from the computer so he could neither be tempted to work nor could he be forced to, but it felt a lot like, "Why did you even bother?"
We were surprisingly lucky with the Fast Passes, which you can sign up for in advance, to be able to ride the super-popular rides with much shorter wait times. The way the system works, you can only sign up for up to 3 Fast Passes at a time, only for one park at a time, and you can only pick from one "premium" ride per park per day. So, for instance, if there's two super super high-demand rides at a given park, you can get a Fast Pass for one or the other but not both. Fast Passes are timed entries, with hour-long windows, so you have to kind of plan your day around whatever Fast Passes you get.
However, if you have a Fast Pass for a ride, and it breaks down, even if you're not on it, and even if it comes back to life later on, the system will automatically generate you a "you can use it on anything in that park, at any time" Pass. Unless your original Pass was for a "premium" ride, the "use anywhere/anytime" won't include those (for instance, "use anywhere/anytime" Passes for Magic Kingdom didn't include Peter Pan or the Dwarfs' Mine Train coaster), but that's ok - there's still plenty of other things to use it on. Anyway, on our first day, we were riding a ride that broke down while we were on it, which meant we got an automatic use anywhere/anytime Pass in compensation, even though we didn't have a Pass for it in the first place. So we used that later to ride on the Big Thunder coaster. The day we were in Hollywood Studios (Easter Sunday), we got there super-early and got on a ride we had a Pass for later in the day, but we got on it sans-Pass because it was early enough that the regular line wasn't bad. And then the ride broke down after we'd been on it, which meant our Pass turned into one of those free-for-alls. However, we weren't planning on spending the rest of the day in that park, so we got guest services to change it to a free-for-all at Magic Kingdom (where we were spending the rest of the day) but because it had been for a "premium" ride at Hollywood Studios, we *were* allowed to use it on anything at Magic Kingdom. Like the Mine Train. Anyway, stuff like that happened to us several times, and it always worked out to our advantage.
Anyway, we ate too much and walked a lot and didn't sleep enough (for some reason, I had trouble sleeping much of the time we were there, and it didn't help that we've discovered that Two now snores), and there definitely were some annoyances along the way, but overall we were pretty fortunate how things worked out. Food was overpriced but tasty, everyone is always friendly, the weather was great.
And then our flight home was delayed three hours - again, by severe weather at the destination (NJ in this case). Of course, the delay wasn't announced until we were on the shuttle bus back to the airport, so it's not like we got any extra time in the parks or to lounge around in the really nice hotel lobby, but ... oh well.
I did come down with a minor cold mid-week, which I then gave to both kids (but, oddly enough, not Will) via food sharing. Thankfully, nobody has felt too miserable, and I'm pretty much over it by now. Alas, Karen started getting sick on the last day, and by the time they drove home this weekend, was more properly sick. I didn't food-share with her, so she must've acquired it somewhere else.
Our weekend was spent doing the usual post-vacation stuff: fetching the dog back from PA (I listened to Hamilton's soundtrack in the car for the first time - yeah, it's good!), giving her a bath, doing laundry, unpacking, mail, etc. Yesterday I started exercising again, and weeded the garden more (still so many weeds, ugh), and today I had another check-in with the gastroenterologist. (Alas, no real improvement, sigh.)
And if you waded through all that, go get some ice cream. You deserve it.
I do remember Palm Sunday (Apr 14), however: For those of you who aren't church-goers or who have different types of services, Palm Sunday in a Catholic church has a super-long Gospel reading, covering events from the entire Holy Week, from Palm Sunday right up through the death and burial of Jesus (but not the Resurrection). It's usually read by three people - the priest gets Jesus' spoken lines, and two others take the rest of the narrative. There's usually a few lines for the congregation to say, as well, printed in bold in the missal. I clocked it on Sunday - the Gospel alone took fifteen minutes. Now, to be fair, the priest usually gives a really short homily afterwards, in compensation. But still - it does make the service longer than usual, overall.
Anyway, just as they were getting started with the Gospel, I saw a man across the aisle and a few rows up suddenly get up (making a middle-aged woman on the aisle get up to let him out) and hurriedly make his way to the back of the church, pausing only to turn back and grab his cell phone. A moment later, two ushers came up, and leaned over into the pew (around the woman on the aisle) to talk to someone. Clearly there was some sort of medical issue going on, although it didn't seem to involve a) something super-urgent like a heart attack or b) someone barfing (there was a year, back in PA, where someone barfed during the Palm Sunday reading, but I was doing the youth activity downstairs and thankfully missed it). Whoever they were talking to seemed to be conscious, at least, or at least sorta conscious. Within five minutes, the EMTs arrived (no siren), quietly came down the aisle, and also leaned over to talk to the patient, who turned out to be an older woman (not the one on the end of the pew - she eventually moved to sit one row back to stay out of the way while there was all this coming and going) or, at least, the person I assume was the woman's husband, although I couldn't see either of them at this point, from my angle. EMTs went back to the ambulance and returned with their stretcher, at which point one of them, the lady EMT, eased into the pew and, along with the husband on the other side, got the woman to her feet and very, very carefully and slowly, got her to inch out to the stretcher - clearly they were worried about her falling/collapsing/fainting. They eased her onto the stretcher, then carted her out.
Meanwhile, the Gospel readers carried on as if nothing was happening, which, honestly, was probably the only thing they really COULD do. They could probably see the situation was well in hand, and nobody needed Last Rites on the spot or anything. So, I don't criticize them at all for the whole The Show Must Go On approach (although I did have to poke Will periodically to pay attention to the points where the congregation had lines), but it was also faintly ridiculous, too. Especially as the priest got up to say his 90-second homily *just* as they were getting the woman on the stretcher. Now, initially, not everyone in church knew there was something going on - certainly, people sitting further up front wouldn't have known there was something going on behind them, at first. But by the time the stretcher arrived, of course *everybody* knew that something was up, despite everyone working super-quietly. Which meant I'm pretty sure absolutely nobody was listening to Fr M's sermon, since every single head was turned to face the stretcher. He's kind of a boring speaker anyway, but he could have been giving the greatest homily since time began, and we would have missed it. :P
I don't know if Father M gave an update on the parishioner during Easter services, since we were away, but hopefully she's ok.
Oh, and the previous day, I'd set down my glasses while trying on a sweatshirt in a store, then forgot them ... and someone stole them. Seriously, who steals prescription eyeglasses? And it was right by the register - so easy to just hand them to someone and say, "I found this." Sigh. Thankfully, I still have older pairs, but it's probably time I make an appointment and get this pair replaced, along with my prescription sunglasses, which were lost shortly before Christmas - and again, who steals prescription sunglasses?? *annoyed*
As for the rest of that week: I worked in the library all day on Monday, getting accounts set up for all 500+ kids for the upcoming annual Scholastic summer reading challenge. Tues was usual library in the morning, then MiniPlu had an appointment with an allergist after school. I've been meaning for ages to try to see if there was ANYTHING we could do for her seasonal allergies. The doctor we got was *great* - he really takes a holistic approach, using both traditional treatments and other stuff on the side people might not consider. The problem was, he had a lOT of different ideas and approaches he was suggesting and he talked a million words a minute. We did get informative handouts, but they lack certain details that I really need to call back and ask about, before we try implementing. Like, for instance, as part of dealing with not only the seasonal allergies, but the skin and pineapple sensitivities, he's recommending a) a probiotic and b) eating a mostly low-carb and low-dairy (ie limiting those to one meal per day) diet, but neither MiniPlu nor I remember *why*. Anyway, because we were leaving for vacation just three days after seeing the doctor, we've only done a few small items on the list, but we really need to kick into full gear soon, see how well it works. MiniPlu is, like me, a carb fiend, and she's really downhearted at the idea of finding other things to eat. And it means, for me, thinking back to when I was on SCD, and wondering if I'm going to be left cooking double, once for the low-carb people, and once for everyone else, as I often had to do when the SCD foods were not going to be to anyone else's tastes. Because catering to the seven distinct dietary needs/preferences wasn't hard enough as it was. :P
After the allergist, MiniPlu had to go straight to tutoring so, yeah, full day. Oh, and there was a scuffle over the upcoming Leo conference. I can't remember if I mentioned this before or not - MiniPlu and two friends are attending the annual North American Leo leadership conference, which this year is being held near Phoenix, AZ, in mid-late July. It's a four-day conference, held in the same hotel where the kids are being put up, so once they arrive, they don't have to GO anywhere, although there will be a few conference-wide field trips, one for a service activity and one fun trip to local water slides. Otherwise, the kids will be sequestered in the hotel, for conference-related lectures and activities, pretty much every waking minute. The other two moms and I sat down and discussed whether we were comfortable sending the girls unaccompanied, because it turned out neither the Leo advisors, nor anyone from the local Lion's Int'l club was going to this conference, and in the end, we decided we were fine. It's a direct flight, MiniPlu has tons of travel experience, her BFF has some experience traveling with a peer and without an adult, and between them, they'll be fine with directing the third girl, who has more limited travel experience. We communicated with the conference director, who answered various questions for us, and, yeah, we went ahead, bought their airplane tix, and signed them up. The local Lions chapter was so excited, they donated money to each girl's trip costs, totaling about 40% of the conference fees, which was really nice of them, and only asked in return that, after the conference, the girls come give a presentation on what they learned.
But then, that Tues (Apr 16) the Leo advisor told the girls that the principal had only just discovered that they were traveling unaccompanied. The Leo teacher had thought that, since it was summer it wouldn't be considered an official school trip, so that as long as we were ok with it, then it was fine. But the principal found out and told the superintendent, and they were both Very Frowny about it, and were Strongly Encouraging us (the families) to pull the kids out, fretful of our letting them loose, unaccompanied, in the wilds of Arizona. MiniPlu came home to warn us that the Leo teacher (Mrs. R) would be calling each of us that night to Strongly Encourage us to quit. So, I got on the text group the three moms have and we all verified that we were fine with the kids going.
Thankfully, I was the first person Mrs. R called that night, around 8p. C's mom is great but sometimes a little scattered, and S's mom is the one who worried a little bit more in the first place, although not too much. Anyway, I was able to calmly and confidently explain that the moms had all met to discuss things *before* we signed them up, we contacted the conference director with additional questions we'd had, that the kids would be picked up *by* the conference and taken to the hotel, that the conference was *in* that hotel so they wouldn't be going anywhere, except on the rare occasions there's a whole-group outing, first for a service project and then to the water slides, and that we'd been assured that those kids who didn't already have chaperones would be assigned one among the conference leaders, that the conference had TONS of structure so there wouldn't be any point that the girls would be at loose ends, and that MiniPlu and C were well traveled, knew how to navigate airports, and that C had even flown sans adults with a peer (I think her cousin) to meet up with family in another state, and that between the three of them, they would be FINE for the small amount of time they were on their own. Mrs. R was clearly relieved to hear about the amount of research we'd put into the whole escapade, and, from what I gathered from the mom text group afterwards, the other moms said pretty much the same thing. We might be asked to come to school and sign release forms, holding the school not-responsible, since nobody from the school is going, but we're okay with that.
But, oy.
Wed I was subbing at the middle school, then took MiniPlu to get the mani-pedi Karen had promised her back on Valentine's Day, but we hadn't had time for until then, and I squeezed in a grocery run to stock up Dad on food, while MiniPlu was at her appointment. R&K left on Wed to drive down to Florida, since Rob refuses to fly these days.
Thurs was library in the morning and laundry and final packing after. I met with my sports medicine guy about my knee (tendonitis). In the evening I left a little early for TKD, taking the dog with me and dropping her off at the dog-sitter's on my way to class, as our dog-sitter is only about 10-15min away from TKD.
Friday we left for Disney! This took longer than intended, alas - due to severe weather in FL right around the time we were due to arrive, the FAA closed both Orlando and Tampa's airports. We were literally 3 minutes from closing the plane door and leaving when the first delay (1 hour) was called; for that, we stayed put, just sitting on the plane (I dozed). But then we were told to deplane and take everything with us and we were given a new gate. It was the same plane, but apparently someone else needed *that* gate. Anyway, getting off for the second hour meant at least we could walk around, and get some food for the evening, seeing as we weren't due in until 8:30p or something at that point. Thankfully, we DID manage to leave at the two-hour mark (we were kind of nervous because the severe weather was, by then, encroaching on NJ, and if we hadn't left soon, we were going to be caught AGAIN), and they reloaded the plane quickly so we could be on our way. Of course, due to the delay, we didn't bother trying to go to the parks upon our arrival - we just unpacked and went to bed.
Thankfully, the week itself was good. The weather was a bit cool the first two days, but then it warmed up, and it didn't rain once. Things that were irritating: Two was a PITA every. single. morning. when I was trying to get sunscreen on him, declaring - repeatedly - that he didn't need it as an Asian person, and that he was going to refuse to wear it, that he couldn't possibly get skin cancer, then complaining, after I had forcibly put it on him, that I didn't rub it in enough - without actually doing anything about it, himself. I mean, MiniPlu hates sunscreen, too, but put it on without complaint because she knew it was important. (I also bought her one of those newer sunscreens that has a more lightweight feel.) Also irritating: dealing with Harvey's scooter. Granted, him going around on a scooter sometimes meant we got to bypass the worst of lines, depending on how a ride, and the queue spaces, were organized. But maneuvering through the parks was a nightmare. It was crowded, and he had trouble negotiating the crowds, so we constantly had to stop walking and wait for him to catch up. And then other times, when it was less crowded, he'd scoot along ahead of our group, and either a) leave *us* behind, or b) go the wrong way. I have never met anyone with less sense of direction, seriously. Even when we were right with him, he'd initially go the wrong way out of a ride space or whatever, or he'd not be paying attention to "stop and wait here" lines on the ground, or he'd misunderstand how he was supposed to park the scooter in order to board a ride or ... I don't even know. His hearing is fine. His mentality is fine. But his sense of direction is nonexistent. And he's *been* to the parks multiple times, so you'd think he would remember at least a little of the general layout, but he couldn't be trusted to find his way out of a paper bag, seriously. Sweet guy, but the four of us were all a bit relieved when we could do things on our own here and there, and NOT worry about dealing with Harvey every minute. And, of course, there was also dealing with Karen, who wanted to stop and photograph everything, or who fussed to make sure everyone was getting what they liked, even in cases where it wasn't necessary, because she's a people pleaser.
Rob, of course, hid out in the hotel room almost the entire time. Even in Nov he ventured out a little more than this trip. We saw him ... twice. He came to the parks ONE evening, 11p-1:30a (Magic Kingdom was open 'til midnight every night, but occasionally had their Extra Magic hours for Disney hotel guests, where they'd be open until 2am), Wed evening, and came to breakfast with Stitch on the last morning, Fri. This is his favorite meal, because of Stitch, but he refused to come to the one scheduled on the first day, nor would he come to his favorite dinner, which was on Easter Sunday. I had a hard time dealing with him when he *was* there, because, for instance, the night he came to the parks, he was all gung ho to find activities everyone could do together (because he and Harvey either don't like or don't fit on certain rides) and by then I was completely bored with all the things he wanted to do, because I'd DONE them, and all I could think of was, "If you want to do things together, then where were you EVERY OTHER NIGHT?" I mean, if he didn't want to deal with crowds and heat, that's fine. But he could have come out to join us after 10p absolutely any night, and he wouldn't. And then when he was amazed that, at the Stitch breakfast, they not only had the standard Mickey-shaped waffles, but also Stitch-imprinted ones, I was like, "Yep, we've seen that already." (In fact, we saw that on the Nov trip, too - which he was at. How did he not remember that when he saw it?) I get that he came along for a change of scenery, so he could see his wife at bedtime, and so he was forcibly removed from the computer so he could neither be tempted to work nor could he be forced to, but it felt a lot like, "Why did you even bother?"
We were surprisingly lucky with the Fast Passes, which you can sign up for in advance, to be able to ride the super-popular rides with much shorter wait times. The way the system works, you can only sign up for up to 3 Fast Passes at a time, only for one park at a time, and you can only pick from one "premium" ride per park per day. So, for instance, if there's two super super high-demand rides at a given park, you can get a Fast Pass for one or the other but not both. Fast Passes are timed entries, with hour-long windows, so you have to kind of plan your day around whatever Fast Passes you get.
However, if you have a Fast Pass for a ride, and it breaks down, even if you're not on it, and even if it comes back to life later on, the system will automatically generate you a "you can use it on anything in that park, at any time" Pass. Unless your original Pass was for a "premium" ride, the "use anywhere/anytime" won't include those (for instance, "use anywhere/anytime" Passes for Magic Kingdom didn't include Peter Pan or the Dwarfs' Mine Train coaster), but that's ok - there's still plenty of other things to use it on. Anyway, on our first day, we were riding a ride that broke down while we were on it, which meant we got an automatic use anywhere/anytime Pass in compensation, even though we didn't have a Pass for it in the first place. So we used that later to ride on the Big Thunder coaster. The day we were in Hollywood Studios (Easter Sunday), we got there super-early and got on a ride we had a Pass for later in the day, but we got on it sans-Pass because it was early enough that the regular line wasn't bad. And then the ride broke down after we'd been on it, which meant our Pass turned into one of those free-for-alls. However, we weren't planning on spending the rest of the day in that park, so we got guest services to change it to a free-for-all at Magic Kingdom (where we were spending the rest of the day) but because it had been for a "premium" ride at Hollywood Studios, we *were* allowed to use it on anything at Magic Kingdom. Like the Mine Train. Anyway, stuff like that happened to us several times, and it always worked out to our advantage.
Anyway, we ate too much and walked a lot and didn't sleep enough (for some reason, I had trouble sleeping much of the time we were there, and it didn't help that we've discovered that Two now snores), and there definitely were some annoyances along the way, but overall we were pretty fortunate how things worked out. Food was overpriced but tasty, everyone is always friendly, the weather was great.
And then our flight home was delayed three hours - again, by severe weather at the destination (NJ in this case). Of course, the delay wasn't announced until we were on the shuttle bus back to the airport, so it's not like we got any extra time in the parks or to lounge around in the really nice hotel lobby, but ... oh well.
I did come down with a minor cold mid-week, which I then gave to both kids (but, oddly enough, not Will) via food sharing. Thankfully, nobody has felt too miserable, and I'm pretty much over it by now. Alas, Karen started getting sick on the last day, and by the time they drove home this weekend, was more properly sick. I didn't food-share with her, so she must've acquired it somewhere else.
Our weekend was spent doing the usual post-vacation stuff: fetching the dog back from PA (I listened to Hamilton's soundtrack in the car for the first time - yeah, it's good!), giving her a bath, doing laundry, unpacking, mail, etc. Yesterday I started exercising again, and weeded the garden more (still so many weeds, ugh), and today I had another check-in with the gastroenterologist. (Alas, no real improvement, sigh.)
And if you waded through all that, go get some ice cream. You deserve it.